Army
Major, Marine Mourned at ArlingtonBy
Jason UkmanCourtesy
of The Washington PostWednesday,
July 14, 2004

In
the short life of Army Major Paul R. Syverson
III, one filled with journeys throughout the Middle East and stories
of heroics in Afghanistan, it was family that mattered most.

These
were the people he loved: the woman he married after meeting her on a blind
date at a military ball, the son he took camping in state parks, the newborn
daughter he hardly had a chance to know.

Yesterday,
they gathered at Arlington National Cemetery to bid farewell to Syverson,
an Illinois native who was killed June 16 when a mortar shell slammed into
a U.S. military camp in Balad, Iraq. He was 32.

Syverson's
was a life dedicated to country and committed to family, according to those
who knew him.

The
life of Lance Corporal Patrick R. Adle, even shorter
than Syverson's, was dedicated to country, too, but death cheated him of
an opportunity to start a family of his own. Adle, a 21-year-old Marine
from Bel Air, Maryland, was killed June 29, 2004, in a roadside bombing
near Baghdad. Just hours after the funeral party for Syverson departed
the cemetery, a group of mourners arrived for Adle.

Syverson
and Adle were the 75th and 76th casualties of the Iraq war to be buried
at Arlington. Though their paths probably never crossed in life, they will
be forever near each other in death. Their graves lie side by side, at
the end of a long row of marble headstones marking the final resting places
of
other Iraq war casualties.

Syverson
was a highly trained Special Forces soldier, schooled in international
studies and Arabic. He was a decorated veteran who had served in Kosovo
and Afghanistan. He had graduated from Virginia Military Institute and
married the daughter of a former U.S. ambassador to Italy. "The guy was
destined for greatness," said Paul Arndt, a friend who met Syverson in
the eighth grade in Arlington Heights, Illinois.

Among
his achievements, relatives and friends said, was his role in the war in
Afghanistan. He was among the first soldiers to respond to the 2001 prison
uprising in Mazar-e Sharif, where he helped retrieve the body of CIA officer
Johnny "Mike" Spann.

During
the mission, an errant U.S. bomb exploded near Syverson, bursting both
his eardrums and injuring his back. He was awarded a Bronze Star and a
Purple Heart. After recovering from his injuries, he returned to action
and served three tours of duty in Iraq.

He
had a week or two to go in his third tour when he was killed last month.

Waiting
at Fort Campbell, Kentucky, was his wife, Jackie, along with their son,
Paul IV, 7, and daughter, Amy Elizabeth, who at the time of his death was
2 1/2 months old.

Yesterday,
"Little Paul," dressed in a tiny blue blazer, laid his head on his mother's
shoulder as they sat near Syverson's grave. They held hands as they rose
to put flowers on the flag-adorned coffin. Jackie Syverson kissed her hand
and laid it on the coffin; Little Paul did the same.

Little
Paul "knows what happened," said his grandfather, Paul Syverson. "Whether
he's just hiding it or not thinking about it or what, I don't know. . .
. He has times when you can see in his eyes he's very sad."

Just
three years out of high school, Adle had no children, but he did not lack
loved ones. His funeral was attended by several hundred people, and his
coffin was surrounded by countless wreaths.

Adle
was assigned to the Marines' 6th Engineer Support Battalion, 4th Force
Service Support Group.

He
came from a long line of military men and was the first member of his family
to die in combat since a great-uncle was killed at Iwo Jima during World
War II.

The
chaplain at the funeral, Lieutenant Cynthia Kane, noted that Adle had cared
for a comrade who had fallen ill with pneumonia and that, at the time of
his death, he had been part of a convoy escorting an ambulance. "His beautiful
smile lit up the world," she said.

Kane
added: "In the shadow of Lance Corporal Patrick Adle's life, which spanned
a mere 21 years, we rejoice in the legacy of his restless spirit -- a restlessness
that led him into the United States Marine Corps in a time such as now
in our world's history."